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While selling on platforms like eBay or Amazon may seem like the easier way, creating your own e-commerce website is always a preferable option. Apart from the obvious reason of cutting out the middleman, you are also branding your business and providing your products with more legitimacy. Still, just making an e-store is not enough for success. In order to get there, you need to learn the rules of the game. With this in mind, here are top four tips that can ensure your e-commerce platform is on the right path from day one.

1. Don’t despair over high shopping cart abandonment

A lot of people in the e-commerce business obsess about the issue of shopping cart abandonment. However, you should be aware that about 17 percent of all people who leave your store are just conducting research and plan to return at a later date. Dismissing all of them simply because they left without making a purchase is a preposterous concept, which sometimes makes people eager to fix problems that aren’t there in the first place.

On the other hand, not a single person from these 17 percent will return if they find a better offer elsewhere. In order to make them come back, you need to make sure that A) your prices are competitive and B) you offer special shipping offers. These two ideas alone can be enough to propel you to the very forefront of the industry.

2. Focus on the visual

Think about traditional resale for a moment. Even with live-testing and showcasing, the only way for you to check the quality of the product is to buy it and test it yourself. So, how do people try to evaluate which product is the better quality one? Well, sometimes they look at the brand name, other times, they read reviews. Some people look at the price, assuming that the more expensive product is always of higher quality. In most cases, however, the product that looks better tends to be evaluated as the superior one. Therefore, you need to focus on the visuals.

For an e-store, this means creating quality photography and knowing how to present your products in the best way possible. Needless to say, for this, you need someone who is both an artist and a marketer. You would be surprised at just how much of a difference flatlay photography can make for the appeal of your products. On the other hand, when selling a clothing item, you can achieve much more with the ghost mannequin technique. It’s all about creating a context.

3. Be transparent about your prices

Even though tricking people by making your prices appear lower might compel them to make a purchase, you can achieve so much more by being transparent about your prices. One of the tactics that often gets used by e-commerce retailers is showing the price without the tax and the cost of shipping. Earlier on, we talked about the shopping cart abandonment rate. Well, about 25 percent of all people who leave your store without making a purchase do so over an unexpected shipping cost.

Being transparent about your prices might lose you some one-time patrons, however, it also stands to earn you some repeat customers. Price transparency boosts your credibility and even increases the overall user experience, and in turn, this causes your audience to come back at a more consistent rate. Seeing as how 40 percent of all your profit is a result of purchases made by only 8 percent of your regulars, this is definitely an idea you shouldn’t underestimate.

4. M-commerce is the future

Finally, you need to keep in mind that mobile users are currently the fastest growing demographic online and, as such, should never be forgotten or neglected. In fact, an average adult spends about 59 percent of their total time online on their phone. Therefore, make sure that your platform is optimized for mobile browsing and shopping. In fact, the simpler the checkout system is, the more appeal your e-commerce website has for your audience.

Conclusion

While having a great product might provide you with a bit smoother start, you need to keep in mind that your price, retail infrastructure and your ability to showcase what you’ve got might carry more weight than the quality of the product itself. Furthermore, you need to learn to accept that sometimes, bad metrics (such as high shopping cart abandonment rate) do not necessarily mean that your business is not on the right track.

Working for an ITstartup sounds attractive. Their job descriptions usually include things like “room for rapid improvement” and “fun and casual work environment”. Joining a startup can be a smart, fun, or even a life-changing move, but not all startups have the budgets or ambiance of large tech companies, nor they are run by genius visionaries. However, a new business can offer a great opportunity to learn everything about building a company from the ground up.

In many cases, working for a startup means hard work with less pay, but it can eventually pay off handsomely. It’s no secret that it involves a lot of risk, because 3 out of 4 startups fail, according to the Wall Street Journal. But even if your startup fails, you can still gain valuable skills and experience to add to your resume. Are you thinking of applying for a job at a startup? Let’s balance out all the pros and cons related to working in such young companies.

1. Are you comfortable with change?

Developed companies have well-defined procedures and processes, as well as tens and hundreds of employees that repeat the same actions every day. IT startups, on the other hand, are able and prone to make quick changes. They frequently change things from job titles to reporting structures to project plans. Some startups move their offices sever times in a few months. If you’re a type of person that needs to get acclimated to the place of work, these constant changes can be frustrating, but if you want to succeed in a startup environment, you should be afraid of the chaos. You have to embrace it. IT startups aren’t afraid of personnel shake-ups and have their eye on picking motivated, young professionals.

2. Skills and experience

Startups differ from large corporations because there are no specific job descriptions that can limit one’s duties, requiring from you to adapt and move between sets of duties. If you’re not intimidated by the startup “sink-or-swim” attitude, then this can be a wonderful opportunity for you to gain various valuable skills. Due to frequent change in job descriptions and assignments, you’ll wear a number of shoes and learn things on the fly. If things don’t work out, you’ll have added things to your resume to make it more impressive.

Working at a startup also gives chances to be a part of projects you might not get near to at another company. These projects are often high risk, but high reward, affecting the startup’s overall success. Since the entire startup culture is focused on fast growth and success, you’ll learn new skills fast. You’ll learn to do different jobs, so expect to take on more than what you were hired to do. The advantage of taking on multiple positions is learning things much faster than you would in any corporate position. In case your startup succeeds, the payout can be huge in the end.

3. Work-life balance

What makes most people stressed, when it comes to their work life, is the inability to achieve a good work-life balance. The startup culture is often presented as laid-back and relaxed, with people riding scooters to work where they’re awaited by positive and good-humored colleagues and a cup of good coffee on their tables. The truth is, startups need people that are passionate about seeing a product/service come to life, which often means working odd or long hours. Every individual is expected to be dedicated, without the assurance that they’ll have their jobs for years to come, which is not seen at a big business or corporation. The long-term success of your startup can greatly depend on each individual employee’s hard work.

Startups are quick to hire and quick to fire, so working for a startup is probably not the best choice for you if you’re looking for long-term stability. In case you are looking for something more stable, you might be better off at an established company in a stable industry, such as Youi.

However, startups are fast-evolving and dynamic work environments that value initiative, which is great for personal growth. It’s the place for all those who want to excel, grow, and find out that they’re best at.

IT startups are filled with people who are willing to have dinner while working on a project and go the extra mile, working late nights, weekends or odd hours. If you thought that you were spending a lot of time working when employed at another company, it’s nothing compared to the work you have to put in when building a startup from scratch.

4. Benefits and salary

The workload may be massive, but at least the payout isn’t huge. Hmm, wait a minute. If you don’t get paid enough for such work, why should you consider applying for a job at a startup? Money is often tight because startups are working in order to get funding. This prevents them from paying employees competitive salaries that other companies are paying to their employees. Many startups manage to counterbalance the lack of benefits and potentially low pay with different perks. For example, some startups may offer free meals and lunches, the option to work remotely from your home, or an open leave policy. On the other hand, benefits can be more abstract, and come from the satisfaction felt after a job well done.

Startups combat low salaries by offering benefits that are more intangible, such as a piece of equity in the company or the chance to build something from the ground up. Despite all these downsides, if the company goes well, there will be rewards to reap. For instance, startups often give their staff stock options early on, which will be valuable if the company takes off. If you were with the company from the beginning, there’s a potential to be promoted to a better position, which means you could become a company executive in just a few years. In businesses with a conventional hierarchy, this can’t be done that easily.

People working in startup companies are often very talented in their respective fields, and are there because they want to build something valuable. The startup becomes their life, turning a simple job into something more of a mission. Regardless of the fact that there are so many things they could do that offer better remuneration and security, they choose to do something they believe in. They take the risk and find it inspiring.

Startups aren’t for everyone. What you find as cons other person may see as pros. Before you make a move, evaluate where you see your future and what you want out of a company. A great number of startups fail, so the chances of success a low, but you’ll definitely walk away with more experience and skills that will help you find your next job.

Cybersecurity is becoming a bigger issue for businesses with each year that passes. Whereas before smaller companies were usually safe from any major attacks, nowadays, even the smallest companies have to worry about someone breaking into their system, stealing their data and/or keeping it for ransom. Since the majority of smaller and even many medium-sized companies have limited budgets, they usually go outside for their cybersecurity. And this is a very good idea.

Expertise

The first reason why you should outsourced cybersecurity for your company is the expertise you will be getting from an outside partner. Cybersecurity is a field that transforms on a daily basis and, for someone who is not absolutely in the loop; things get very chaotic very soon. An outsourced cybersecurity partner will know exactly what your vulnerabilities are (after doing penetration testing), how to address them in the best way possible and how to deal with possible attacks that do take place.

Tools

In order to be able to handle attacks from all over the world, a company needs to be supplied with the finest tools that are available on the market. Unfortunately, such tools cost an arm and a leg, and a smaller company can never hope to afford them. Your outsourced cybersecurity partners, on the other hand, will have all kinds of tools at their disposal and they will be ready to deploy them for you when need be.

Costs

There are a couple of ways in which you can put a price tag on your cybersecurity. For example, you may start putting together a budget for your own dedicated team of employees who would do nothing but take care of your cybersecurity. You factor in their salaries, the space they will be taking up and the tools they will need and you soon realize it is an insane expensive proposition, even if your company is doing well.

Then, you start thinking that maybe it is just not worth it and that you can leave your company wide open to attackers in the hopes they will not target you. Now, think about what it would cost you to close down your company for a few months, not being able to do a single thing. That is a reality if you are hit by even the crudest piece of ransomware. What are the costs there?

In the end, it is more than obvious that the only logical solution is to hire an outsourced cybersecurity partner who will handle your security at a fraction of a price that you would have to pay to handle it yourself or to ignore it.

Education

Last but not the least, we also have to mention the value of proper education in cybersecurity matters. Education of business owners, C-suite, managers and individual employees is a basis of every secure company and that is where your outsourced cybersecurity partners can also come in handy.

Namely, you will often find that such companies are ready to put together a class or two on cybersecurity basics for the people in the company. And these are actually the right people to be telling you about their industry. There is nothing worse than when someone who never worked in infosec tries to tell people how to keep their company systems safe.

Closing Word

When you go through all the reasons why outsourced cybersecurity makes sense, it really makes no sense to go any other way. You get expertise (perhaps even education) and tools and you get them at a price that more than makes sense.

There are many issues to deal with in software development. In today’s ever-changing technical world, it’s very difficult to keep a development team focused and on track, work within a budget, decide on a methodology, gather requirements, and lock down scope. App quality testing is still one of the most overlooked aspects of the software development process because both developers and producers can make mistakes, even when they think that their coding is flawless.

However, with quality assurance (QA) testing, you’ll make sure that your apps are bug-free and ready for launch. Due to issues such as small budget and time constraints, there are definite benefits to outsourcing software QA. These are some solid reasons to outsource app quality testing.

Types of software testing

Before we begin, it will be helpful to understand which specific app elements are tested, in order to get a better idea of how QA testing is truly practical and useful. There are three main types of QA testing: usability, functionality, and security.

Usability testing can include testing your app’s overall flow, content, responsiveness, and speed. Great usability is crucial for making users feel comfortable using your app.

Functionality testing includes testing search features, text inputting, menu navigation, and other elements that refer to the ease in which your app can be used. It’s done to ensure that your app’s functions meet its original design specifications.

Security testing is done to ensure that there are no poor coding errors or misconfigurations that can leave your app open to security attacks (takeover, denial of service, and data theft). Identifying security vulnerabilities is primarily done by ethical hackers, who are able to create reports that highlight potential problem areas and risks before the real hackers do.

1. Time

Saving time is one of the major reasons for outsourcing app quality testing. Experienced QA testers are able to do the testing at hand more thoroughly and quickly than your in-house staff. After all, QA testing is their area of expertise. By outsourcing these services, you’ll have more time to devote to other important tasks, while your quality testing gets done by professionals with the highest levels of expertise. You’ll increase productivity by following documentation and test planning standards that help keep track of all functional requirements.

2. Objectivity

Maintaining objectivity is one of the biggest advantages to outsourcing quality assurance testing. When performed in-house, testing is often done by the same group of people who created the software in the first place. They review the material that they’re already familiar with, and there’s a higher risk of error and bugs to go unnoticed. Defects in functionality and small errors are more likely to be discovered by a “fresh pair of eyes than individuals who worked to develop the app.

3. Cost efficiency

By using a skilled team of dedicated developers, you can drastically cut testing costs. This is a guarantee that you won’t miss functional testing, and speed up delivery time to your client. By delivering a bug-free product and expediting your app’s time-to-market, you’ll ensure maximum budget efficiency. One of the latest concepts of QA testing is crowdsourced app testing that quickly gained momentum, which consists in assigning app testing tasks to a community of professional QA testers through an online platform.

4. Ensure best practices

When it comes to software testing, you can ensure following measurable industry standards by hiring a team of professionals that is exclusively concerned with quality app testing. A good QA teams should have certain standards and tools for testing services, which means that you should do your research before choosing a QA team. These testing standards and tools should relate to mobile apps, web services, security penetration, load and performance testing, and database services.

5. Improve development quality

Software development teams either have individuals in multiple roles (designers or coders) that perform quality app testing along the way or one QA person who’s terrified of the developers. However, the number of discovered bugs and errors will be increased with a team of experienced and dedicated app testers. A team of QA testers only cares about ensuring functionality, which makes it able to reduce defect leakage.

6. Equipment

One of the most determining factors when it comes to outsourcing instead of creating your own in-house QA testing team is equipment and infrastructure. This can involve office equipment, such as office supplies and productivity software (browsers, licensed operating systems, and third-party plugins) and new hardware, such as computers and mobile devices (both tablets and Android and iOS phones).

By outsourcing app quality testing, you’ll cut down on cost, time, and liability. It will also give you the option to take advantage of these resources and services only when you need them, and not on an on-going basis, which makes the whole process more cost-efficient.

Today, most of the businesses out there rely heavily on technology. That is why they need IT specialists who will be able to fix any tech problem as soon as it occurs. If this is the case with you, chances are you are thinking about hiring an IT team for your business. Still, more and more entrepreneurs choose to outsource their IT support. That being said, make sure you check out our seven reasons why you should go for outsourced IT support.

It saves you money

The IT outsourcing market tends to be quite competitive, which means you will not have to spend a real fortune if you decide to turn to IT professionals. On the other hand, if you decide to hire new employees who are going to deal with IT support for you, you will not only have to pay their wages but there will be some other expenses such as recruitment and training. Also, bear in mind that if you choose to deal with IT support internally, you will also have to buy all the equipment necessary for your IT team’s work.

It offers you the benefit of experts in IT

Unless your business actually has something to do with IT, you are hardly going to keep up with the pace of the latest trends in the industry. And we all know how rapidly new pieces of technology get released. Luckily, IT professionals will always stay up-to-date with all the developments and they might also advise you on ways you can use technology to grow your business. This might just help you gain a competitive edge and start standing out among the companies in your industry.

It is more effective

It is also important to mention that outsourced suppliers are able to deal with any sudden problems more effectively. Since they are always on call, they can use remote access to take control over someone’s PC and deal with the issue as soon as possible. Not to mention that these experts have tons of experience in fixing any potential problems. You can also sign an agreement that allows you to apply financial penalties if your supplier fails to provide you with all the services you agreed upon.

It helps you resolve issues properly

There are plenty of things that can go wrong with your tech equipment. No matter what it is, you have to make sure it’s resolved properly in order for the same problem not to occur again. There are also some issues that can cause further damage if they are not dealt with correctly. With this in mind, outsourcing your IT support makes a lot of sense since you will be assured there are highly-skilled people dealing with this kind of issues for you. Furthermore, they will do it much faster than an internal IT team which is something you should definitely aim at.

It allows you to focus on other things

No matter what kind of work your business does, it is always very important that you and your managers are able to focus on core aims of your company. IT issues are something that can easily divert you from your main task, and make you lose hours and hours. Even if there is a whole team responsible for your IT, either you or your managers will have to be included in the decision-making process. Not only this, but there will be more people that you have to manage and more reports to read. On the other hand, if you outsource your IT support, you will be able to focus solely on doing your work.

It provides you with 24/7 support

If your employees work from 9 to 5, they will also need to have in-house support for your systems in case something goes wrong. This means you will have to supply them with more equipment and pay them more. Also, you can hardly expect from your employees to be available 24/7 and you might have to hire more people who will deal with your IT support. Most of the companies that can provide you with managed IT services are on call 24/7 and you’ll always be assured any IT problem will be dealt with as soon as possible.

It helps you respond to changes in demand

When launching a new product or starting a new marketing campaign, you can always expect to see a sudden change in demand. This may cause a real headache for your IT team, especially if you don’t have enough IT experts in your company. Outsourced suppliers are prepared for such changes in demand and will be able to deal with it easily. Most importantly, if they respond to these changes properly, there will be no deals not going through just because there’s something wrong with your tech.

An outsourced supplier can offer you a much cheaper and better way to manage your IT support services. Therefore, make sure you take a look at local companies that provide these services and try to reach an agreement that both sides will benefit from.

One of the most common business ideas these days is running an eCommerce company – an online store that exists only on the web. It can be a fantastic way to make a living if you know a market that still has a need for a new online store and if you know how to put everything together so that you can sell your products at a profit.

As you might imagine, this is where outsourcing can be of immense help. In fact, the vast majority of ecommerce stores are built on outsourcing various aspects of their organization and today, we will be talking about the most common parts of the ecommerce experience that business owners outsource.

Logistics

In the vast majority of cases, ecommerce companies will outsource their logistics. In fact, there are only a handful of ecommerce companies that do their logistics themselves and these are the world’s largest ecommerce companies such as Amazon, for example. For everyone else, it comes down to third-party logistics companies, also known as 3PL.

This way, you are outsourcing your warehousing, your transport and your deliveries. This both ensures that you get professionals taking care of your stock at all times and also that you will not be spending all of your money on your own warehouses, trucks and delivery people.

Simply put, not outsourcing your logistics makes no sense in the ecommerce arena.

IT

Since an eCommerce company will exist almost entirely online, it goes without saying that IT and everything that goes with it will be the majority of the operation. Some eCommerce owners decide to outsource one part of it while others let their outsourced partners handle the most of it.

For example, there are people who decide on Shopify’s domain registration, hosting and the basic package and then they hire someone to upgrade their solutions so that their shop does not look like just another Shopify store (not that there is anything wrong with them).

Other people go to web design companies and they have their store developed from scratch. Sometimes, ecommerce websites grow so quickly that the owner has to hire someone to handle the maintenance.

There are innumerable variants to this, and when ecommerce owners decide to outsource their IT, they need to ensure they are hiring the right people. This is where Globality Consulting and companies like that come in.

Customer Service

For people who are not really familiar with how ecommerce stores work, it may seem that they can operate without any customer service people. The customers just click on what they wish to buy, this is recorded and the delivery is made, right? Couldn’t be any simpler?

In reality, however, there is as much need for customer service in ecommerce stores as there is in traditional, brick and mortar ones. People have questions about products and since they cannot hold them in their hand, they have even more questions. On top of this, many shoppers do their purchasing outside of regular work hours and it is not like you can hang a sign Sorry, we’re closed on your website.

This is why a very large number of ecommerce companies outsource at least one part of their customer service experience, the live one. It is quite difficult to organize three 8-hour shifts if you are not exactly teaming with a budget for such serious customer service.

Marketing

Ecommerce takes a lot of marketing to work. You start with nothing but a website. No one knows anything about it. No one knows it exists.

You have to change that.

For most ecommerce owners, marketing is not a strength and they often find it much simpler to outsource marketing to an outside agency that will know exactly how to get an ecommerce website visible and attracting customers.

Once again, when hiring outsourced marketers, it is important to know how to recognize those that will do your website justice and deliver the results.

Closing Word

All in all, eCommerce involves quite a bit of outsourcing and it is essential you find reputable partners you can rely on. Read a few more articles on the Globality Consulting blog and pick up a few tricks.

The ultimate goal of every small business (or in fact, any business regardless of its size) is to get ahead of the competition, grow and increase its revenue. Often times, it is enough for a company to stick to the tried and true tenets of doing good business, but often times, there is need for those little tricks other SMB owners do not think of. Today, we will be talking about these little tricks and how they can do wonders for a smartly run small business.

Use Outsourcing

Outsourcing is one of the smartest things small business owners can do and this is especially true for certain aspects of running their company. For example, you should definitely outsource your IT department since you will probably have no need for an in-house IT team that will cost an arm and a leg and that you will use every two weeks. You might also consider an outsourced customer support and telemarketing teams where you will be saving money and reaping the benefits of companies with decades of experience.

Debt Recovery When Needed

One of the worst things that can happen to your SMB is that you have people and companies that owe you money for services rendered and that are always coming up with new ways and legal reasons not to pay up. For larger companies, this is not such a big problem because they have more revenue streams and they can afford if someone is late with their payment. For smaller companies, this is just not possible. This is why experts from a debt recovery company from Perth always recommend their SMB clients to pursue their debtors immediately. This way, you will always have the cash flow needed for your company to operate.

Reducing Employee Turnover

Many SMB owners believe that employee turnover is simply a reality of running a small business. They think that they cannot keep their employees no matter what they do and that they will go to bigger employers if given a chance. This is not true. You can keep your employees and stop bleeding money by having to replace them. For one, you need to pay them what they are worth and you need to make sure you provide as many benefits for them as you can. Also, they need to know they are being appreciated and that their opinions matter. Treat your employees right and they will pay you back, manifold while your competitors will be scrambling for new people every few months.

Base Your Marketing On Numbers

Often, when you run a small business, marketing sort of gets lost in the shuffle and you figure that anything is better than nothing. You set aside some money to boost your visibility and you sort of forget about it. As long as you are surviving, it works, right? Wrong. Your marketing efforts need to show just as much factual results as anything else. If you cannot see the palpable, real-world benefits of a certain marketing campaign, then it is not worth the investment. It is especially important to keep track of your online marketing success rate because you can easily fool yourself into thinking that a hundred more social media followers means result. It doesn’t.

Remove Guesswork

There is a reason huge corporations spend millions every year on business analytics and entire teams of analysts that predict how the market will move and what the company should do. This way, they base their decisions on data and analytics models instead of on guesswork. This way, they are dramatically increasing their chances of making the right decisions. The good news is that SMBs can nowadays utilize data and analytics thanks to various SaaS providers and pieces of software that can provide some truly fantastic insights to act on. This is the 21st century and the sooner you get your SMB into it, the better you will be off.

There is no doubt that outsourcing is becoming an important part of the modern world of business. Companies from all over the world are finding out-of-house partners who allow them to do a better job, to provide their services cheaper and to, all in all, improve their operation in every way possible.

The scope of services that are being outsourced has grown over the years and various companies now outsource their sales department, their IT and accounting departments, as well as their marketing and even their security.

And while there is absolutely no dilemma whether outsourcing is a sound business tactic, there are also a few things that companies need to be careful about, above everything else about the security.

Sharing of Information

The main reason why companies that outsource need to be careful about their security is that they are sharing an increased amount of information with other companies and outside partners. For example, a company that has approached an outside marketing agency might find themselves in a situation where they have to share sales figures and other, perhaps even more sensitive, data about their finances. Whenever a company is working on a project with someone, they have to share certain data and it is easy for this data to get intercepted or “lost”.

Moreover, since the outsourced partners might have remote workers themselves, this will “spread” your data even further, involving all kinds of cloud solutions and remote access platforms. This is why you will want your partners to use high quality encrypted cloud storage as well as channels of communications that are secured by layers and layers of software which will ensure nothing leaks.

Human Error

Another potential problem with outsourced partners is that you are increasing a number of people that have access to critical aspects of your business, which due to simple numbers, leads to increased vulnerability of your business. This is particularly true online where an increased number of people is at risk of becoming victims of social engineering and other ways to breach someone’s data.

Outsourced partners often work with a large number of clients which can only “complicate” things and make it more likely for them to mix something up, share access details with persons who should not have access to any part of the operation and more.

Human Malice

This is something business people do not like to think and talk about, but it is the harsh reality. Sometimes, people wish to harm a company, whether for personal reasons (like after getting fired) or for financial gain. This is something companies always have to worry about from inside, but with outsourced partners, the number of people to keep an eye on increases.

It is easy to imagine a situation where a disgruntled employee of your outsourced partner decides to steal sensitive information and then post it online or even sell it for profit. Sure, there are always legal actions that you can take, but this will do very little to help you in a situation where your company data has been exposed.

How to Avoid It

In order to avoid any security issues with your outsourced partners, it is absolutely vital never to rush into such a relationship with any company that you are not sure about. Only after you have checked their reputation and looked at their characteristics should you start working with them.

Another way to minimize chances of anything happening to the security of your outsourced relationship and your company in general is to hire an agency like Globality Consulting who have years of experience in the field and who will put you in touch with only the most professional and secure partners.